


give me fire, burning hell

by SargeantWoof



Series: These Are My Myths Now [1]
Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Genre: Alternate Take of a Myth, Character Study, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:15:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28207428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SargeantWoof/pseuds/SargeantWoof
Summary: Medusa was not a kind girl.
Relationships: Athena & Medusa (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore)
Series: These Are My Myths Now [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2139507
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	give me fire, burning hell

Medusa was not a kind girl. She was grit in palms, scornful eyes, and brambled hair. She was beautiful, tall and curved, like a woman from stories whispered around fires, her skin bronzed in the sun and her eyes the green of new growth. She spoke her mind, proudly and without hesistation. 

She was not kind. And though many would say that was her undoing, it was her saving grace. 

+++

Another of her faults was her curiousity. 

She wanted too much, too fiercely. She was magnetic in her desires, though none were as enchanting as her thirst for knowledge. 

She was a woman unlike any other.

( _She was like all other women, just brasher and brighter in the ways that drew the worst of men's attention_.) 

+++

She was not a seductress. 

She never was. 

It was only in the stories after that she was cast as a villain. 

She was stolen. Taken. Forcibly removed. 

+++

After it was done, after the original violence had been committed, after she had been bloodied and torn, ripped from her sense of self and dumped unceremoniously on the floor of the temple, ~~his~~ footsteps fading from her hearing, she dug her hands into the marble and _wished._

It was not a kind wish. She was not a kind girl. It was a wish of strength and iron and will and desperation. 

It was _her,_ laid bared for judgment. 

+++

She remembered once, early in her life, crawling underneath a log in the forest to watch ants steadily work. She had been delighted by their camaraderie, full of wonderment at the sight of all of them so steady in their tasks. 

She wondered if she would ever feel simple again.

+++

Her sisters swept into the temple, her ferocity on display. Her fight obvious on her body. 

They were not kind either. 

Neither of them mentioned the way she trembled. 

They helped her up, their fingers too tight on her bruises, their mouths grotesquely twisted, their noses wrinkled. 

+++

Only a man would've taken their actions as disappointment or disgust and missed their clear anger. 

+++

Medusa stopped them from pulling her from the temple, pulled herself from their grasping hands, and got back down on the floor and knelt, her head bowed, her hands flat on the cool stone, her body extended in supplication. 

Sthenno and Euryale exchanged a glance before following their sister down the the floor, their two bodies laid out as a mirror behind her. 

+++

They were not kind in their prayers. 

It was their salvation. 

+++

People forget that Athena was born fully armed. She sprung from her father's forehead, aware and ready. The deepseated hypocrisy of Zeus swallowing her mother was not one she forgot. 

Zeus, father of most mortal heroes, was not one to go against, even in his crueler decisions. 

So she didn't. 

But if she heeded prayers that would make it harder on the children of _~~father~~_ the Gods, well, she was the Goddess of Warfare for a reason. 

And the prayer that swelled through the temple, the prayer of vengeance and desperation and cruelty and tied off neatly with the resounding desire to live, was one that she never thought of not answering. 

Athena _knew_ she would see cities burn with her choice. 

( ~~She made it anyways.~~ ) 

+++

Medusa realized something had happened at the low hisses in her ears and the weight of her head as she went to lift it. 

She glanced over her right shoulder taking in her sister's tranformations with a muted sense of surprise. She faced forward, tilting her head back to take in the marblized version of Athena, offering her gratitude before she pushed herself up, realizing that she had no twinges in her body with another wave of surprise. 

She rose to her feet steadily, flexing her hands and taking in her pointed nails before raising her right hand to feel at her hair. 

Somehow the flicker of a snakes tongue against her palm didn't startle her. 

She turned, taking in her sister's bodies as well with her otherworldly gaze for a beat before she smiled. 

It wasn't a kind smile. She wasn't a kind girl. 

In fact, she wasn't a girl at all. 

**Author's Note:**

> very atypical story - i have no idea what is happening in my brain anymore so I guess I'm just spewing out anything that comes to me
> 
> if you enjoyed, please let me know!


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